Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A miscalculation has tainted the world's major oil
fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. The
few countries still able to export oil and natural gas—Russia chief
among them—have a stranglehold on the global economy.

Then, from the darkness of space, comes Phoebe.
Rather than divert the massive asteroid, America captures it into Earth
orbit to mine it for materials with which to build enormous solar-power satellites.
Cheaply produced in orbit and able to beam vast
amounts of power to the ground, these powersats offer America its last,
best hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin.

But special interests, from technophobes to
eco-extremists to radio astronomers, want to stop the project. And the
remaining petro powers will do
anything to protect their dominance of world affairs.

NASA
engineer Marcus Judson is determined to make the powersat demonstration
project a success—even though nothing in his job description mentions
combating an international cabal…or going into space
to do it.

Conceptually, the Turing Test is still valid, but we need a better
practical process for testing artificial intelligence. A new AI contest,
sponsored by Nuance Communications and CommonsenseReasoning.org, is
offering a US $25,000 prize to an AI that can successfully answer what
are called Winograd schemas, named after Terry Winograd, a professor of computer science at Stanford University.

Here's an example of one:

The trophy doesn't fit in the brown suitcase because it is too big. What is too big?

The trophy, obviously. But it's not obvious. It's obvious to
us, because we know all about trophies and suitcases. We don't even have
to "think" about it; it's almost intuitive. But for a computer program,
it's unclear what the "it" refers to. To be successful at answering a
question like this, an artificial intelligence must have some background
knowledge and the ability to reason.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

I recently streamed from Netflix (Amazon Video offers it, too) the 2013 science documentary Particle Fever. It's foremost about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), decades in the making, arguably the largest and most complex machine ever constructed by mankind. The movie is also about the long hunt for the elusive Higgs boson and the wondrous things that this elementary particle's discovery (and its specific properties, once fully characterized) might portend.

Literally awe inspiring

It's about the Standard Model of Particle Physics, one of the most successful theories in the history of science, and the even deeper insight(s) that might yet surpass it. It's also about conditions the briefest instant after the Big Bang, and -- at quite the opposite extreme -- about what the observed properties of the Higgs boson might imply about the end of the universe. And it's about whether even to speak of the universe is a misunderstanding, that (perhaps) we live, unknowingly, within a multiverse.

But beyond all these -- surely significant enough -- topics, Particle Fever is about the very human reasons why some of the brightest minds on the planet do physics.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The past week has been crazy busy for me -- and the next week(s) looks to be no different. I won't bore you with the details (or relive them myself). Instead, I'll share a little about the terrific novel with which I've unwound the past few evenings.

John Scalzi's latest novel, Lock In, is a little bit of many things. But before the characterization, the set-up. In the near future a plague strikes, but rather than another zombie apocalypse, in a minority of cases -- still numbered in the millions -- the patients become entirely paralyzed. Not only can't they move, they can't speak. These victims are, in the vernacular, "locked in." Through technology -- surgically implanted, neural-net, brain/computer interfaces (here's my take on neural implants, from a few weeks ago) -- the locked-in connect with both virtual worlds and remotely operated humanoid robots.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

I don't care what subject material is involved, publishing is an interesting business. Even if an author is wholly committed to self publishing (I haven't yet gone down that road), it's a business to which he must pay attention.

Hugh Howey is an author who is, at least in large part, committed to self-publishing -- and he's been very successful at it. (If his name isn't familiar, check out his dystopian novel Wool. It's excellent.) A few months back Howey posted an interesting essay contrasting the economics of self-publishing with that of traditional publishing. His essay opens:

It’s no great secret that the world of publishing is changing. What is a secret is how much. Is it changing a lot? Has most of the change already happened? What does the future look like?

The problem with these questions is that we don’t have the data that
might give us reliable answers. Distributors like Amazon and Barnes
& Noble don’t share their e-book sales figures. At most, they
comment on the extreme outliers, which is about as useful as sharing
yesterday’s lottery numbers [link].
A few individual authors have made their sales data public, but not
enough to paint an accurate picture. We’re left with a game of
connect-the-dots where only the prime numbers are revealed. What data we
do have often comes in the form of surveys, many of which rely on
extremely limited sampling methodologies and also questionable analyses [link].

What to read?

Non-US shoppers

Featured Post: A Milestone

On October 16, 2007, Fleet of Worlds was first published. That is: ten years ago to the day. Larry and Ed at 2015 Nebula weekend This...

Energized (Newly reissued!)

"A taut near-future thriller about an energy-starved Earth held hostage by a power-mad international cartel … Lerner’s vision of the future is both topical and possible in this crisp, fast-paced hard SF adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Dark Secret (my latest)

"I heartily recommend Ed Lerner's Dark Secret" — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Enigma (I-Net #3)

"One of the most rewarding SF reading experiences anyone could ask for, on both an intellectual and emotional level." — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Origins (I-Net #1)

"One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might really be like."— Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog

A Time Foreclosed

"A nice little foray into the paradoxes of time travel" — SFRevu

Fate of Worlds (FOW #5)

“Brings to a stunning close a multivolume saga that has captured the imaginations of a multitude of readers … a story that will attract attention from series fans as well as readers of hard sf.” — Library Journal

Juggler of Worlds (FoW #2)

“A snazzy thriller/mystery that keeps us (and our hero) guessing until the very end ... Wide screen galactic scope, nifty super-science, crafty aliens, corporate corruption and cover ups, and a multi-leveled spy vs. spy vs. spy mystery with little being as it first appears make Juggler of Worlds a first class exemplar of pure SF entertainment.” —SFsite

Fleet of Worlds (FoW #1)

" ... Needs recommending within the science fiction community about as much as a new Harry Potter novel does – well, anywhere." —Locus

ARMAGEDDON / PARADISE -- two books in one

"A romp through time and history ... an intriguing selection." — Bookloons

Small Miracles

"Suspense and action enough to fuel any thriller, and even to drive it to the big screen." —SFrevu

Fools' Experiments

“When the artificial intelligences ... go maverick, they turn out to be the true weapons of mass destruction. A fast, fun read.” — Sci Fi Weekly

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About Me

I'm a physicist and computer scientist (and an MBA, of less relevance to most of these posts). After thirty years in industry, as everything from individual technical contributor to senior vice president, I now write full-time. Mostly I write science fiction and techno-thrillers, now and again throwing in a straight science or technology article.